Today we’ll continue with some of your favorites (or the passages you have questions about). Email (andy@stm-umc.org) or message me with any passages you’d like added or that you have a question about!

Today we are looking at 2 Corinthians‬ ‭4: 16-18‬: 

16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Today’s passage (and sorry it’s a little delayed!) has a great word of encouragement to us in the very last few words. We can be strong; we can not lose hope; we can endure, no matter how hard things may be, because the things we are going through, no matter how hard or how tough they may be, are simply a blip in time. 

They are temporary. This moment, this moment that is seen, it is not enteral. It is just this moment. Our pain may be seen as permanent. Our grief may seem permanent. Our loss, our hurt, our struggles, our temptations, all these things they may seem permanent. But they are not. They are just a moment in time. 

Look for what is not seen. For what is not seen is eternal. What is not seen is faith. What is not seen is of God. What is not seen is of true, infinite value.  

This world, if we only look at this brief moment in which we live, may not make sense. This world is not forever. It is passing. And if we find our value in the things that are passing, we will never find life.  

So many of us feel empty this morning because our worth is found in the temporary and the passing, in the seen. Instead, our worth must be found in what is not seen. In the things of God. That is worth, that is life, that is hope. That is hope. That is hope. 

That’s why we have hope.  

Look to what is not seen; look to faith. In that, you’ll find purpose, hope, and life. Look to what is not seen. Then we see true life.  

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